


Extraordinary

by minnesotamemelord



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Flashbacks, Gen, Good Sister Vanya Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy Has Issues, Number Five | The Boy Needs A Hug, Protective Siblings, Sibling Bonding, Vanya Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Violins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-15 20:24:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18080291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minnesotamemelord/pseuds/minnesotamemelord
Summary: Aloneadj.Definition: having no one else presentAlternate Definition: Five and Vanya Hargreeves





	Extraordinary

Number Five relaxed, his head swinging back against the wall with a soft _thunk._ Melancholy strains of violin music floated through the house, muffled by the wall that separated his room from Vanya's. He loved nothing more in life than to sit on his bed with a book and listen to Vanya practice. Through the opposite wall, he could hear Klaus, Ben, and Diego in Klaus's room. There was a loud thump. He didn't worry about it. If one of them was hurt, they could deal with it themselves. He was completely content to just sit and listen to Vanya play.

The music stopped abruptly. He heard paper shuffling and Vanya muttering unintelligibly to herself, then it resumed, even more haunting than before. Vanya had this way of making you feel hollow, but also completely overwhelmed with emotion. Both in her music and just when she spoke. Five rolled his eyes. He was getting sappy. He hated getting sappy. Just then, there was a knock at the door.

"Five?" It was Mom. "Five are you in there?"

"Shit," Five murmured and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to disappear, somewhere, anywhere. The first place that popped into his mind. When he opened his eyes, a stunned Vanya stared wide-eyed at the boy sprawled out on her bed. "Oh. Hey." He quickly scrambled to an upright position. "Sorry, I'm just-"

"Avoiding training?"

"Ha. Yeah." He tucked his legs underneath him. They stared at each other in awkward silence for a minute. "What are you playing?"

"Brahms. Sonata three." She spun the music stand around to face Five.

"Look hard." Vanya shrugged.

"Not too bad. Then again, when you do nothing but play the violin all day..."

"Touché." Vanya seemed quiet and shy most of the time, but Five has learned over several periods very similar to this one that she had a quick wit and a clever mouth, something Five respected more in a person than any other quality. “I always wished I could play an instrument like that.”

”Like what?”

”Well.” Vanya snorted.

”Five, I’m sure if you tried, you’d kick my ass in no time.” It was probably true. Five seemed to be able to pick up any skill in no time at all. They had tested it to see if it was a special ability, but there was nothing supernatural about it. He was just a savant. “Here. Try it.” Vanya held out her violin and bow. Tentatively, Five took them and tucked it under his chin. He froze a moment and let Vanya adjust his positioning, then slowly, cautiously, drew the bow across the strings. A long, low note filled the room, wobbling slightly in Five’s shaky hands. He pushed the bow back across, repeating the motion, back and forth, back and forth, in a curious, repetitive melody. When he finally brought it down, Vanya was staring at him, wide-eyed.

”What? Did I do something wrong?” All of a sudden, she burst out laughing.

”I was right! You would kick my ass!” She doubled over in laughter. 

“No-“

”Yeah, Five. When I first started, I did nothing but squeak. You just played actual notes.”

”Oh. Sorry.”

”Not your fault I’m ordinary.” This hit Five as a surprise. The fact that she had internalized what she had been told since her very birth, that she was nothing special and never would be, that she didn’t matter, that she couldn’t save the world because unlike her siblings, she didn’t have superpowers, that their father had told her day after day, week after week, year after year for nearly a decade and a half that she was nothing. Impulsively, he reached out and drew Vanya into a tight hug. She froze, stiff as a board under his arms. Little by little, she relaxed, until her head was resting on his shoulder and her arms were wrapped just as tightly around him as his were around her.

”You’re not ordinary, Vanya.”

”Tell that to my DNA.”

”I mean it.” Five released her and pulled the sheet music off the stand. “Look at this. This is insanely hard. I can barely read it. But you can play it like a boss. That’s so far from ordinary. You might not have superpowers, Vanya, but that doesn’t make you ordinary. What makes you extraordinary isn’t having some crazy supernatural powers that you use to fight crime. Being extraordinary is finding something you want to do and becoming the best at it. And I think you’ve done that here. No. I know you’ve done that here.” He looked up and realized Vanya was crying. Her lower lip wobbled and tears threatened to spill from her eyes. “Oh, shit, did I say something?”

”Yeah. And it was perfect.” She blinked away the tears and smiled, brighter and more brilliantly than Five had ever seen before. “And I’m kinda hungry.”

”I’ll sneak down to the kitchen and make us some sandwiches.”

”Peanut butter and marshmallow?”

”’Course. Who do you think I am?” Five disappeared in a flash of blue light. As he made the sandwiches, his mind wandered up to Vanya, sitting alone in her room. In a way, she was more extraordinary than any of the rest of them, simply because she didn’t have powers, but she still kept on. She had a purpose, something he only dreamed of. And yet, he found himself more at ease with her than anyone else in their family. Perhaps he’d found someone to share his lonely place with, the void he found himself wandering in aimlessly, without a goal or a reason just to be. Perhaps everything he’d ever wished for was stacked in these two marshmallow and peanut butter sandwiches in front of him.

They ate their sandwiches, and they laughed at everyone else below them in the courtyard, training. Five was used to looking in from the outside, only he didn’t mind it so much since he had someone else to watch with. He didn’t retreat back to his own room, either. Instead, when Grace at last found him, he was lying on Vanya’s bed with his legs propped up on the wall, describing the intricacies of time travel as Vanya practiced rapidly. She didn’t disturb them, just took the sandwich plates and took them back to the kitchen. She didn’t tell anyone else, either. The two of them could use some companionship. And the next week, the week before Five would disappear for fourteen years (or forty-five, depending on how you look at it) and leave Vanya forever to wonder what had happened to her best friend, her only friend in the entire world, was perfect. It was amazing, incredible, fantastic, astounding, and magnificent.

Simply put, it was extraordinary.


End file.
